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Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Snorting Bull Awards: Best Insert Set

BEST INSERT SET

This was a difficult decision this year. Usually there is a clear cut winner or several insert sets that stand head and shoulders above the rest of the insert sets. This year was a tough decision for the opposite reason. There were not any tremendously awesome insert sets. I could point to every product and name at least one insert set that I liked during the year, but again nothing overwhelmed me to the point of having an easy decision on this topic.

For me the decision ended up boiling down to two sets. I really liked the die-cut Triumvirate cards out of the Stadium Club set this year. Stadium Club was a strong product this year and Topps did a really good job of getting the set back to its roots. As an avid 1990s collectors I really enjoyed the product and it took me back to some good days back in the 1990s when Stadium Club was an annual release.

The Triumverate inserts were always one of the best parts of the late 1990s Stadium Club sets. Again, Topps did a really nice job of recreating this insert set in this year's product. I have gone out and picked up several of these cards for my collection. However, I thought that there was an insert product that was stronger than this Stadium Club insert this year. Just wanted to give this insert set a nod, or tip of the hat, in my post. The best insert set this year was.......

The Topps Archives Major League Set. Overall Topps did a really good job of creating a lot of 1990s feeling cards this year. Major League was actually released in 1989, which felt a lot like the 1990s in many ways..... The Major League Set seemed to translate better across the board with collectors of all age groups better than the Stadium Club set. While Major League is a 1990s movie, it's one of those baseball movies that loads of all sorts of different age groups has seen.

Topps did a great job of creating a set of cards based on the main characters from the movie putting them on a 1989 Topps style card. They even used the pink and blue color schemes that were on the Indians cards in the 1989 set. I like the Major League logo baseball in the corner and the script text in the top right hand corner to set the cards apart just a little bit. The set also has a cool autographed parallel set featuring the autographs of the actors/actresses who played the character on the card. I landed one of these in one of the boxes of Topps Archives I opened this summer....

Not the flashiest, shiniest, or hardest to pull insert set of the year, but the Major League set brought a lot of excitement to the Archives product and card collectors in general this summer. The insert set is not too expensive and not too difficult to assemble, yet looks great once all of the cards are put together. The autographed parallel set is a nice touch too. Great insert set and the clear winner of the Insert Set of the Year Award here on my blog.